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Software that sounded useful, so you bought it, but then...

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timns:
Quite a few times I have tried some software that I'm sure would be useful, grabbed it quick, but then I find that I get no use out of at all.

This is not necessarily a reflection on the quality of the product (although that is often a factor) but somehow it just doesn't "click" for me. Or maybe I'm just dumb and don't use it right - I'm sure the author of at least one such product would be delighted to agree with that statement  :Thmbsup:

Does anyone else suffer from that problem? Not sure whether to share the list or not, as I don't want to dissuade you all about products that just don't come together from my point of view.

TaoPhoenix:
By the time I've actually paid for a few things, I usually pick pretty well. But in the trial/free dept it happens to me all the time! I was just posting a few weeks ago how I removed about 100 unused programs from my machine after they had all just showed up for random reasons at the time.

40hz:
I think anybody who is in the habit of actually paying for software will run into that annoyance sooner or later.

Like TaoP, I'm usually pretty careful about what I pick so I haven't had too many bad surprises. Most that I did have bad experiences with were "vertical market" or "industry specific"  (i.e. productivity and accounting) type programs written by small developers.

x16wda:
Happens to me often.  I find it difficult to resist downloading utilities that have been recommended by reasonable people, or that address an issue I've seen (even peripherally), or that just sound neat.  Or ones that do the same thing I already have a utility for but maybe have an interesting feature.  And since the landscape changes constantly I sometimes revisit topics that I've spent too much time on already (how many times have I looked at text editors?).  Most of it gets installed and tried out and I get excited about it, but then something else comes along...

Happens less often with purchased products, but still happens.  I can buy software based on an awesome demo but later find the workflow doesn't fit, or buy a product and the developers take it somewhere I don't like as much.

I think anyone who's willing to take a chance on finding a better way should see this happen now and again.

(btw, anyone want a copy of UltraEdit with lifetime updates?)

mahesh2k:
I found many good programs from the small companies and developers better. Unfortunately it is the big brands that were not good with support and feature updates.

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